Cracking the Paleo Diet

Here are some photos of the newest piece of art(?) installed in Nashua. The sculptor calls it "The Birth of Venus 2". I asked two kids walking down the road what it was a sculpture of and they said it was a butt. Actually it looks like 4 butts stuck together. You can find the statue (worth a chuckle) off Locke Street in Nashua next to the John G. Foster statue in the French Hill section of the city. This sculpture cracks me up and I am sure the neighborhood will have some fun with this!

Yesterday I ran and my calf stiffened up again. It was back to mountain biking today, but I really enjoy doing that anyhow. I think the calf stiffness comes from the way my foot is hitting the ground. I just got back to running after a week off partly due to the fact that I had found a tight spot near my ankle and released it through some pressure and mobility work. When I started running yesterday, the muscles over the shin were real tight. Instead of stopping and dealing with it, I ran on and the calf stiffened. I forgot about that front of the foot stiffness until this afternoon and worked on the area a bit and the whole ankle and foot started working better and the calf did not feel as stiff. It is sort of frustrating losing another day of running, but on the other hand, I believe my balance and form is straightening "slowly" and as it keeps unwinding from all the tightnesses and misalignments new areas keep popping up that need some attention. I guess that is a good thing!

I have been reading two books this week on the Paleo Diet. I find them interesting and while I don't know if it is a diet I would follow religiously, I find the reading about nutrition and healthy eating is helping me become a better eater. I finished reading "The Paleo Diet for Athletes" by Loren Cordain and Joe Friel. I really enjoyed hearing about the history of how humans (hunters and gatherers) ate 10,000 years ago. I would like to read "Born to Run" again because some of that book dealt with this.

The other book I started reading is called the Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson. I recall when the author was a 2:19 marathoner and triathlete (finished fourth in the Hawaii Ironman). He advocates a different lifestyle today. It is based on the Primal Diet (similar to Paleo) but also the Primal healthy lifestyle. He is probably correct in one thing: the constant stress of marathon and endurance training is not healthy. I don't want to deal with that thought just yet. I certainly can apply some of the ideas in both books as being "fit" is not the same thing as being "healthy".

A few years ago, my daily summer diet looked something like this:

Breakfast: large orange juice (fruit for the day) and 2 or 3 bowls of cereal (if I was feeling healthy, I would eat Honey Nut Cheerios. If not (and it was in the house) I would eat a sugary cereal (favorites: Honeycomb, Captain Crunch, or Sugar Puffs). I figured that I run so I could eat what I wanted.

Snack: (cookies or anything else quick to eat that was lying around)

Lunch: Sandwich, soda, cookies, maybe even some ice cream

Snack: cookies or other sugary processed food

Dinner: whatever was provided (spaghetti, hamburgers, etc.) soda, desert,

Late night: cookies or ice cream

I have been using principles from "The Warrior Diet" off and on since the winter, but have got off it here and there. Anyhow today's diet based on some of the ideas in my new readings:

Breakfast: scrambled eggs with peppers and onions mixed in

Snack: a small bit of pistachio nuts and some cherries

Lunch: a few small pieces of chicken and a salad I made with spinach, onions, peppers, green beans, broccoli, asparagus, and sunflower seeds

snack: an apple

Dinner: Salmon, peas, rice (not on the paleo diet)

Snack: well after taking my family to see the butt statue we did stop at Dairy Queen and I had a chocolate ice cream cone (can't be perfect!)

As you can see I have been learning to change my diet dramatically. I do miss the days when I could eat whatever I wanted!